“Or you’ll do what?” Marissa questioned.
“Get the Wing Sin after us as well as our friend from Female Care Australia? Please, Tristan, try to remember who we’re dealing with.”
“I suppose you’re right,” he said morosely.
As they drove into Aberdeen, both Marissa and Tristan forgot their concerns for the moment. The town was extraordinary. The enormous harbor was choked with thousands of sampans and junks of all sizes lashed together to create an enormous floating slum. In the middle of the squalor were several huge floating restaurants gaudily decorated in crimson and gold.
“How many people live out there on those boats?” Marissa I questioned.
“About twenty thousand,” Bentley said.
“And some of them rarely step onshore. But they are being relocated by the government.”
“And no plumbing,” Tristan said with disgust.
“Probably not a proper dun ny in the lot. Can you imagine the E. coli count in the water?”
When they got into the town proper, they saw a number of jewelry stores and banks. Aberdeen, it was clear, was a city of haves and have-nots.
“It’s from smuggling,” Bentley said in response to a question from Tristan.
“Aberdeen was the center of smuggling and piracy long before Hong Kong existed. Of course it wasn’t called Aberdeen then.”
Near the Ap Lei Chou Bridge, the lead Mercedes pulled over to a sampan dockage. Mr. Yip’s henchmen got out. Bentley pulled into a parking area. By the time Marissa, Tristan, and Bentley got to the quay, the man had secured a motorized sampan.
The small diesel engine was chugging and sending off puffs of black smoke from its exhaust.
Everyone climbed on board. The sampan operator pushed off and they motored out into the turbid water.
“Hope this boat doesn’t capsize,” Tristan said.
“One dunk in this water and we’d all die.”
At that very moment they saw a group of young children dive off a nearby junk. Frolicking in the water, they squealed with delight.
“My word,” Tristan said.
“Those kids must have impressive immune systems!”
“Who are these people?” Marissa asked, even more amazed at the floating city from close up. Entire families were in evidence, with clothes hung in rigging to dry.
“Mostly the Tanka,” Bentley said with a touch of derision in his voice.
“They and their ancestors have been living on the sea for centuries.”
“I take it you are not a Tanka?” Tristan said.
Bentley laughed as if Tristan were comparing him to some subhuman race.
“I’m Cantonese,” he said proudly.
“A little prejudice in the Heavenly Kingdom?” Tristan quipped.
Mr. Yip’s associate directed the sampan operator up a row of junks then alongside one of the larger ones. When the sampan stopped they were abreast of an opening at about chest height. A powerfully built Chinese man suddenly appeared and glared down at them. He had a scraggly goatee and wore his black hair in an old-fashioned braid. He was wearing a quilted vest. His pants were loose but short, coming only as far as his calves. On his feet were leather thongs.
Standing with his legs spread apart and his hands on his hips, he cut an imposing figure. With a deep, gravelly voice, he spoke in animated Chinese. Bentley said he was speaking Tanka.
Mr. Yip’s henchman launched into an animated discussion with the man. Both sides seemed angry. Marissa and Tristan began to feel nervous. In the middle of the debate, a doll-faced, wide-eyed child of about three suddenly appeared, staring down at the strangers from between her father’s solid legs.
“They are having some disagreement about money,” Bentley explained.
“It doesn’t involve us.”
Marissa and Tristan felt relieved. They took the opportunity to examine the captain’s boat. It was about forty feet long with a beam of approximately eighteen feet. The wood was an oiled tropical hardwood, giving the craft a honey color. The deck was in three levels with a poop at the stern. Just forward of midships was a mast that rose up about twenty feet.
Suddenly the captain turned to Marissa and Tristan. Pointing at them, he spoke in angry, guttural tones.
“Okay,” Bentley said.
“We can go aboard.”
“You can go aboard,” Marissa said. She looked up into the captain’s fierce eyes. They were staring at her unblinkingly.